Oil and gas is still a drag on otherwise robust employment growth for July

The sector has lost one in four jobs since the peak in late 2014.

The United States posted robust employment growth in July, adding 255,000 jobs, solidifying a sense that the economy has started to accelerate amid concerns that it might have been slipping into a new recession.

The oil and gas sector, however, continued its precipitous decline. Notices of mass layoffs continued throughout the month of July -- the industry has now lost 220,000 jobs, or more than one in four, since its peak in September 2014.

Here's what's happened to employment in the mining and logging sector, which includes oil and gas extraction and services:

Other than manufacturing, mining and logging remains the only sector to have lost jobs over the year:

The last two months of estimates were also revised up slightly, putting employment growth at an average of 190,000 jobs per month. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent as more than 400,000 workers flooded into the labor force, a sign of growing confidence in the U.S. job market.Hourly wages ticked up eight cents, amounting to 2.6 percent growth over the year.

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.